One Paris Summer: Book Review

Title: One Paris Summer

Author: Denise Grover Swank

Publish Date: June 7th, 2016

Genre: YA/Contemporary/Romance

Reading Format: E-book

Summary: Most teens dream of visiting the City of Lights, but it feels more like a nightmare for Sophie Brooks. She and her brother are sent to Paris to spend the summer with their father, who left home a year ago without any explanation. As if his sudden abandonment weren’t betrayal enough, he’s about to remarry, and they’re expected to play nice with his soon-to-be wife and stepdaughter. The stepdaughter, Camille, agrees to show them around the city, but she makes it clear that she will do everything in her power to make Sophie miserable.

Review: I loved 70% of this book and maybe that sounds bad but let me start off with stating that the first 3/4 of One Paris Summer was good enough that I actually finished the book instead of skimming through the last few chapters to get to the end like I tend to do when I’m done reading the story but still want to know how it ends (you feel me). But this story had its moments and it takes place in one of my favorite settings, France; more specifically Paris and that’s what made me decide to read it in the first place.

The story follows Sophie and her brother Eric as they spend the summer in Paris with their estranged father and his new family. Sophie struggles with her time in Paris and especially her new stepsister Camille, who quite honestly is extremely immature in this book for someone who is 17 years old. Sophie also struggles with her dad who a year ago left her, her brother, and their mom to move to France, this struggle in particular plays a large part in the book.

There is also a romance in the story between Sophie and one of Camille’s friends Mathieu. The romance is cute but there is unneeded drama towards the end between the two and also another dramatic part with Sophie’s best friend that feels completely out of left field from the rest of the story. Its the escalated drama that really made me change my overall rating from 4 stars to 3.